


Except

by schmulte



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Introspection, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), One Shot, Short One Shot, just a fluffy little piece from their Hogwarts years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29420778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schmulte/pseuds/schmulte
Summary: Because no one really knows Remus Lupin.No one, except Sirius Black.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 38





	Except

No one really knows Remus Lupin. He is a different person to everyone, a boggart of a boy who's form changes and shifts to please every acquaintance. He is a prefect and a prankster, a model student. He is the boy who always has a spare quill to lend out or an extra bar of chocolate in his pocket. He is the Gryffindor who won the first annual Hogwarts toast-eating contest in the Spring of 1974. He is the only one who knows how to get past the Whomping Willow, a friend of the giant squid and marauders alike. A werewolf to some and a friend to all. 

When he first met the boys who would become his three best friends in the Gryffindor boy's dorms his first year at Hogwarts, he was shapeless. Remus has never been one to put on a show for himself- he is quiet when he is alone. He is someone he doesn't like. 

Weeks and months and years spent with the marauders moulded Remus like clay. At first, the responsible one, the friend who reminded them who was on prefect duty that night and which corners of the school to avoid. Over time, he became pragmatic, the planner. He researched pranks as much as his essays and applied all other talents accordingly.

Still, though he loves his friends dearly, he is not always who they want him to be. It's impossible, really, for someone like Remus to keep pleasing everyone all the time. His true self will slip out occasionally, during a particularly rough lunar cycle or a stressful week before exams. He will become aggressive, no longer the mild-mannered boy who trails after James Potter but his own force of nature, snapping at every small disruption. James and Peter, well-intentioned as they may be, never know what to do in these situations. This is not their Moony, the one they've grown accustomed to after nearly seven years at school together. They will fall away or say the wrong things, leaving Sirius to clean up the mess.

If Remus is a boggart of a person, Sirius is a poltergeist. He is jovial and carefree, wreaking havoc at every opportunity, and most would akin him to something more friendly of a spirit. But Remus has seen him at his worst- after he's been reminded of his family, after he's caught Regulus conforming to his parent's expectations. After someone insults one of his friends or his own incestuous blood. This Sirius is all poltergeist, bared teeth and cruelty and vengeance twisting into his usual light hearted pranks. 

It is in these moments that the two boys understand each other best. They are both ticking time-bombs waiting to explode, held together with the glue that is the friendship of James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. They are their grounding forces that keep the venom inside from clawing its way out and destroying every good thing in sight. 

It is always Remus who finds Sirius after he's had a slip. Peter is kind hearted but useless when Sirius is cruel, and there is a silent agreement that James must not know of any mishaps until well after they've passed. So it is Remus, today, who sits with Sirius in the prefect's bathroom, cleaning the blood that drips from a painfully bent aristocratic nose. 

"Who was it today, then?" Remus asks without cruelty. Sirius winces as the cloth touches a particularly sore spot, gritting bloodied teeth and tightening the grip he has on Remus's knee. 

"Mulciber," he grinds out. "Fuck-that _hurts_ , Moony."

"Sorry," he cleans more gently, avoiding the tender areas. "want to talk about it?"

Sirius sighs, heavy and long; his breath is warm on Remus's face and his slender fingers tighten once more. "Caught me making some adjustments to his death eater posters in the fourth floor corridor."

Remus hums in response. He's seen the flyers- _keep Wizarding pure_ and the like, plastered across parchment and hastily pasted up on the walls. Sirius has been notorious lately for defacing them with witty banter. His most recent campaign, adding ridiculous anti-muggle sentiments to their posters. Remus doesn't understand the use of it, but it makes Sirius happy, so he doesn't question. 

"What was it this time? 'Muggles smell of jam' again?"

Sirius snorts, immediately regretting it as he groans and holds his still-bleeding nose. "'Purebloods eat paste.'"

Remus laughs deep in his throat, the sound echoing off the walls of the prefect's bathroom. It's the perfect place to hide Sirius after a fight- password protected, secluded, and hardly anyone ever uses it on account of Moaning Myrtle's crush on the Hufflepuff prefect. She doesn't bother Remus, though; they're something akin to friends, strange as it sounds. She knows to leave them alone when Sirius stumbles in with a split lip. 

"Very clever. Would have been more clever if you'd used the map to make sure no one was coming, though."

Sirius blows a stray dark strand away from his forehead. "Pete's using it, the git."

"It's not Peter's fault that you got yourself caught," Remus tuts, bringing the cloth away from his face. "There. Afraid you'll have to go see Pomfrey for the rest."

Sirius reaches out while Remus is still leaned close, brings a hand up to stroke a scarred cheek with his thumb. Eyes with purpled lids beneath turn soft, and his split lip quirks up in the right corner. "What would I do without you, Moony?"

"You'd get a lot more detentions to start."

It's Sirius' turn to laugh now, though it hurts him to do so, and he leans forward to press a fleeting kiss to Remus's lips. There will be blood left on the pretty pink skin, but in the moment neither of them can find the will to care. His free hand comes to hold Remus's hip, palming the soft fabric of his worn school trousers as he goes in for another kiss. 

"I can't keep kissing you every time you get into a fight," Remus laughs against his lips. 

"Oh?" Sirius punctuates the thought with another peck. "And why's that?"

"I think it's encouraging you."

Sirius laughs again, pulling Remus into his lap. He kisses him until his nose hurts too much to keep going, and then kisses him more for good measure. Tomorrow Sirius will get into another fight, or Remus will be approached too suddenly and snap, and one will end up taking care of the other in the safety of the prefect's bathroom. They are twin flames in this sense- to people cut from the same cloth, two planets constantly in orbit. They will take their familiar pattern and fall and fall and fall until they are both on the ground with only each other, and that will be enough, for a while. And Remus will be grateful for his time with Sirius before it is ripped away from him by fate. Because no one really knows Remus Lupin. 

No one, except Sirius Black.


End file.
